Should I book my airfare with a third party site?

On a daily basis I see people wondering three things when it comes to booking airfares online...

1) should I book directly with the airline, or through a third party booking site?

2) if I do book through a third party booking site, which is the best site to use?

and

3) Is [insert site here] ok to use? Can I trust them?

Booking directly with the airline vs booking through a third party site

All things being equal, I would usually prefer to book directly with the airline rather than through a third party booking site. And whenever possible, I try to steer people towards the airline's own website for booking, assuming the amazing price is available there.

Why?

When you book through a third party site, the airline does not view you as their customer. They believe the third party is responsible for helping you out should you require to make any changes, and should you try to contact the airline for help they will always direct you back to the third party that made your booking.

This can be annoying, as it's usually easier (and cheaper) to deal directly with the airline should something go awry or if changes need to be made.

BUT, all things are not always equal

There are two common situations where booking directly with the airline is either less appealing, or not possible at all.

Situation #1

The airline (and their website) are not showing the flight(s) or itinerary you want, but a third party booking site *is* showing them. This happens a lot, especially when it involves flights using multiple airlines.

Situation #2

The price of a certain flight is cheaper through a third party booking site than it is directly through the airline (or their website). Yes, it does happen.

With Situation #2, the question becomes: "How much cheaper does it need to be through the third party site to tempt you away from booking directly with the airline?"

If there's a $5 difference, it's probably not worth booking through the third party. But what if it's $50 cheaper through the third party site ? Or $500 ? Everyone has a different threshold.

And if you *are* tempted to book through a third party site, which one should you use? Who can you trust?

Why every booking site has bad reviews

If you try Googling for reviews on third party booking sites, you'll just end up more confused than ever, because *every* third party booking site (and seemingly every airline) has numerous negative reviews, due to the fact that whenever *anything* goes wrong with someone's vacation, the booking site inherently becomes the one people usually blame.

Sometimes this blame is justified, but other times it's due to factors that really aren't in the control of the booking site in any way, but people inevitably need someone to vent their frustrations at (eg. airline unexpectedly re-schedules or cancels their flights, the hotel room wasn't clean, it rained all week, the margaritas weren't strong enough, etc, etc).

I'm also pretty convinced that many people don't realize how much it can cost to make any changes to a booked airfare, *regardless* of whether you booked through the airline directly or through a third party site (who will pass those charges from the airline along to you, and usually tack on a $50 service fee of their own).

This leads to numerous angry reviews from people who think the third party booking site is trying to extort them for 'hundreds of dollars to change my flight' - when in reality, the bulk of that charge is coming from the airline, who would have charged them the same amount, minus the typical $50 service fee.

Why size matters with booking site reviews

The reality is, some of these third party booking sites are absolutely enormous on a world wide scale, in terms of the number of bookings they process each day. Some of them process millions of bookings a year. If even 1/10th of 1% of those bookings result in an unsatisfied customer, that can potentially mean thousands of negative reviews that end up on the Internet.

What this all means is that you probably have over a 99% chance of things turning out absolutely fine when booking with any decent, well known third party site, but you sure wouldn't know it by reading about the 1% of bookings that turn into negative reviews.

People do *not* review third party booking sites on the 99% of occasions when everything goes well.

However, having witnessed thousands of conversations and opinions from Canadians about the various third party booking sites over the years, I do see certain things being mentioned time and time again about certain sites, and the experiences travelers have with using them.

I also have my own opinions about the quality of the various third party sites, based on using them myself, since the dawn of the online travel age, and keeping close tabs on the online travel industry in general over the years.

With all of these opinions taken into account, I've decided to rank the third party sites in order of preference, as well as point out specific things to watch out for when making a booking using certain sites.

The 3 things you should watch out for with third party booking sites

1. Currencies

Make sure you know what currency the site is displaying their prices in. Some are better than others at making it clear. Always assume it's U.S. dollars ($USD) until you see it explicitly mentioned otherwise. Sometimes there is a way to change the site to display in Canadian ($CAD) - but other times there is not.

Every day, I see comments from Canadians that think they've found an amazing discount on an airfare, only to discover that the price they're looking at is actually in U.S. dollars, not in Canadian. This can make over a 30% difference in the price when comparison shopping between sites. Sometimes the prices are even in Euros or Pounds!

I can only imagine how many people book these fares in a currency other than $CAD, not realizing it until they see their credit card statement. By this point, it's too late.

As a Canadian, it's possible to book a flight even if the site is only willing to display prices in $USD. Just keep in mind you'll automatically be charged in $CAD by your credit card company, using today's exchange rate, plus approximately another 3% in currency conversion costs.

On occasion, it can actually even be cheaper to book a flight that is priced in $USD (and then charged to your credit card in $CAD, with a 3% surcharge), versus booking directly in $CAD. This is somewhat rare though.

2. The Third Party 'Service Fee'

This is the fee that the third party booking site will charge you, should you request to make any changes to (or cancel) your flight down the road. This service fee is above and beyond the two other charges that the airline would *also* charge you, had you booked directly through them instead.

In my research for the power rankings, I found that the typical third party service fee averages around $50 CAD.

3. Know what site you're on!

It sounds obvious, but some of the common third party booking sites have very similar sounding names, and every day I see people that get the names mixed up.

You don't want to mix them up, as they all have different policies and service charges, or they could be displaying prices in different currencies, etc.

Some of the sites that people often mix up and have *no* relation to each other at all include...

Know the difference between a meta-search site, and a third party booking site - and you will be ahead of most people when it comes to booking flights online

Some of my favorite sites you may have seen me bring up time and time again over the years, such as Google Flights or Kayak are not third party booking sites. They are what are known as meta-search sites, which means they search multiple third party booking sites, and then send you to one of them, and that third party site is in control of your booking.

I often see people mistakenly claim "I booked my flight with Kayak / Google Flights / Skyscanner / Momondo, etc." In reality, the person was sent *from* the meta-search site to a third party site for the actual booking.

That third party site is where the booking was generated, and the quality of the third party site you end up at is all that *really* matters, not the meta-search site that sent you there. The meta-search site involved really has no control whatsoever over your booking.

Popular meta-search sites that will send you to third party booking sites:

Third Party Booking Sites - The Power Rankings

#1 - Expedia

Yes, Expedia. You've probably heard of it! If you ever need support it's likely going to be someone based in Egypt (virtually all third party sites use offshore support), but they have excellent booking technology, and tickets are issued from the airline quickly, at the verified price that is shown on their website.

This is important because there are some third party sites with poor booking technology where this is not the case. They'll accept your payment details, and *hope* they can book your ticket at the price that was shown to you. If they can't, you'll receive a follow-up phone call or e-mail asking if you would still like the ticket (but at a different price).

If you don't agree to the new (and likely higher) price, you will not be charged. These are legitimate booking sites, and they're not *trying* to pull a bait-and-switch on the public. They just don't have the higher quality price verification and booking technology in place that other sites like Expedia do. Typically, the larger the site, the better the technology behind it.

I'll point out the third party sites that have poor booking technology as we make our way down the power rankings.

It's very easy to find numerous negative reviews of Expedia where someone found something to complain about, but also keep in mind they process over 40 BILLION dollars worth of bookings per year. Doing the math, if even 0.1% of their 20 million annual bookings resulted in a bad review, that would be 20,000 bad reviews!

cost of changing flights:

The airline's change fee + the increase in airfare price. So, the same as what the airline would charge you if booked directly.

24 hour cancellation policy:

Expedia.com allows free 24 hour cancellation, with 24 hours counting towards business days only. This is NOT the case with Expedia.ca - where free 24 hour cancellation really means the next 24 hours, whether it's business days or the weekend.

#2 - Priceline

The only site that processes more bookings per year than Expedia these days is Priceline. They've had some great deals over the years, and have even honored all of the obvious 'error fares' that I can recall, including a round-the-world mistake fare for $130 !

The booking technology at Priceline is solid, and tickets are issued quickly.

Priceline always defaults to displaying prices in $USD, until you explicitly change it to $CAD (near the top right, on the search results page). Be aware that this setting could change back to $USD when you close your browser.

#3 - CheapOair

CheapOair has one of the more positive reputations amongst Canadians. Occasionally I've seen them display supposedly 'verified' prices they couldn't deliver on. Their booking technology is not quite as solid as say, Expedia, Priceline or Orbitz.

But on the other hand, I've always heard generally good things about their customer service. And their service fee, should you require to make any changes, is quite low by industry standards, at $26 CAD (assuming it's not a multi-stop or business class / first class flight, as explained below).

#4 - Orbitz or CheapTickets

Orbitz and CheapTickets are the exact same site. They are (were?) one of the big players in the third party booking site world, but are now owned by Expedia.

Similar to Expedia and Priceline, Orbitz has solid booking technology. Tickets are issued quickly, and if a price is verified on Orbitz, it's extremely likely they'll be able to deliver on it.

Their 'best price guarantee' for airfares is notoriously difficult to make a claim on. Should you require to make any changes to your booking, the Orbitz service fee, at $38 CAD, is lower than the industry average of $50 CAD.

has solid booking technology. They have had a few public incidents in the past where they didn't honor a promo code that was exploited. On the other hand, they've had a few well known incidents where they *did*.

#6 - FlightNetwork or FlyFar

has a good reputation overall. Their well advertised 'price drop protection' is really in the form of a credit which can be applied towards a future flight, and not cash back, but that's still pretty generous considering there's really only about $10 worth of profit to be made on the sale of most flights.

There are a few sites that claim to offer price drop protection, but from what I've seen, FlightNetwork is seemingly the only one that does not work hard to screw customers out of a price drop claim with an endless list of technicalities.

So, changes are $100 CAD more than what it would cost if booked with the airline directly. This is a pretty steep service fee relative to the industry average of $50 CAD.

Take the high service fees into consideration if you think there's a good chance you'll want to change your flight after booking.

24 hour cancellation policy:

It does not appear that Flight Network has any sort of 24 hour cancellation policy. It's best to assume you cannot cancel your flight within 24 hours of booking without paying a hefty fee.

booking currency:

Prices on FlightNetwork and FlyFar are in $CAD by default, and they are in fact, Canadian owned companies.

heads up:

FlightNetwork often has a promo code out for another $10-$20 off the price of a flight. It can be difficult to find the spot to enter this promo code. You'll find the spot to enter the promo code on the passenger details page (after you've selected the flight).

#8 - FlightHub or JustFly

I have mixed emotions about FlightHub. On one hand, their customer service has quite a bad reputation, and they have expensive change fees. But there's no doubt about it, there have been numerous occasions where they are one of the few (or only) sites showing an amazing (and bookable) price. If it were not for that saving grace, I would be tempted to rank them lower.

The consensus on FlightHub seems to be: If you don't anticipate needing to change or cancel your airfare down the road, they are fine to book with.

So, changes are $75-$150 CAD more than what they would cost if booked with the airline directly. These are quite high service fees, which you should take notice of, if you think there's a strong chance of you needing to change your flights later.

Triple-check all of your details before booking through FlightHub or JustFly, to make sure no changes will be required.

24 hour cancellation policy:

If you pay $19.99 for the FlightHub 'Best Purchase Guarantee' when you book your flight, your flights are fully refundable within the same day of purchase (until 11:59 PM EST).

booking currency:

The prices on FlightHub or JustFly are generally in $CAD by default, especially if you've arrived there from a meta-search site, such as Kayak or Skyscanner.

On FlightHub, it's possible to change the displayed currency in the top right of your screen, under the phone number. Look in this area to double check that the prices are being displayed in $CAD. (On JustFly, click on the name of the country, to the left of the phone number).

heads up:

FlightHub and JustFly both try to add the extra $20 'Best Purchase Guarantee' (see above) to your bill by default during the flight booking process.

You can easily deselect it, it's right above where you enter your payment info.

#9 - FareBoom

I find they are quite good at offering the lowest prices available, and I like the fact that their site offers some innovative search features, beyond the typical cookie-cutter template.

The FareBoom Flex Search allows you to search large date ranges at once, with very flexible durations (up to 5 days on either side).

Their Flight Map (displaying the cheapest prices around the world) is well designed.

I can't speak to their customer service, as I have not seen many Canadians mention FareBoom.

Their About Us page is refreshingly candid, and mentions that they employ 'seasoned travel professionals' as opposed to 'inexpensive labor overseas labour that is going to waste your time and annoy you with monotonous “yes, sir” answers to all your questions'

cost of changing flights:

FareBoom does not list the service fees involved with changing flights on their website.

24 hour cancellation policy:

It does not appear that FareBoom has any sort of 24 hour cancellation policy. It's best to assume you cannot cancel your flight within 24 hours of booking without paying a hefty fee.

booking currency:

FareBoom seems to be able to detect that you are visiting the site from Canada, and sets the currency in the search results to display in $CAD. But you can make sure of this by checking near the top of the website, towards the middle.

#11 - RedTag

I can't say I've ever really seen a flight price that was exclusive to RedTag. They're more known for helping people with booking all inclusive packages, but they're pretty big as far as Canadian travel sites go, and I've always heard good things about their customer service.

cost of changing flights:

The RedTag terms & conditions page states that service fees will apply (in addition to the airline change fee + the increase in airfare price, as usual) - but they don't stipulate what that service fee actually is.

24 hour cancellation policy:

It does not appear that Red Tag has any sort of 24 hour cancellation policy. It's best to assume you cannot cancel your flight within 24 hours of booking without paying a hefty fee.

#13 - Nanak Flights

Nanak Flights is a small-time agency based in Brampton, Ontario. I see them mentioned once in a blue moon (usually by Skyscanner users wondering if anyone else has used them).

This is pure speculation, but my guess is that their booking technology is slow, clunky, and fraught with issues, similar to other small-time agencies. You'll probably have to fax in your credit card details at some point. The majority of their positive reviews on Google seem to be written by family members.

2017 update: I've seen a fair number of Canadians mention that they have had good booking experiences with Nanak Flights, and I've bumped up their ranking. They seem to be one of the better, smaller agencies out there, and quite often I see them displaying the lowest price on an already great deal.

cost of changing flights:

I can't seem to find their service fees listed anywhere. The terms & conditions page simply states that they 'reserve the right to charge a fee for services'.

24 hour cancellation policy:

It does not appear that Nanak Flights has any sort of 24 hour cancellation policy. It's best to assume you cannot cancel your flight within 24 hours of booking without paying a hefty fee.

#14 - SellOffVacations

Due to their marketing/branding, I find that people often associate SellOffVacations as being a source of 'last minute package deals and sell-offs', but in reality, the prices will be the same as on all of the other Canadian owned websites (RedTag, FlightCentre, ITravel2000, etc), as they all retrieve their prices from identical suppliers.

cost of changing flights:

SellOffVacations does not list the service fees involved with changing flights on their website. This seems to be a common theme with Canadian based booking sites.

24 hour cancellation policy:

It does not appear that SellOffVacations has any sort of 24 hour cancellation policy. It's best to assume you cannot cancel your flight within 24 hours of booking without paying a hefty fee.

booking currency:

On SellOffVacations the prices are always in $CAD. It's the only currency they display.

#16 - Kiwi

Kiwi (formerly Skypicker) is a booking site startup based in the Czech Republic.

They have a pretty great map-based interface, and are doing some interesting things with airfares, such as merging airfares on the major airlines with airfares on budget airlines, and allowing you to book both at once. This can give you booking options that aren't available on other search engines.

They do often show fares that can't really be booked though (the price changes once you get to the verification page).

cost of changing flights:

Kiwi does not list the service fees involved with changing flights on their website.

24 hour cancellation policy:

It does not appear that Kiwi has any sort of 24 hour cancellation policy. It's best to assume you cannot cancel your flight within 24 hours of booking without paying a hefty fee.

booking currency:

On Kiwi you can set the currency in the top right of your screen. Make sure it is set to $CAD.

#17 - Hotwire

is known for being a site where you might be able to get a great deal on a 'mystery hotel' (where you don't know what the hotel is until you purchase it). This concept has never really worked well for flights. I have yet to ever see any great mystery flight deals.

cost of changing flights:

Hotwire claims to only charge the 'airline change fee' ($150 USD to $300 USD) + the difference in airfare. So, theoretically, changes should cost the same as if you had booked directly with the airline, similar to Expedia.

24 hour cancellation policy:

It does not appear that Hotwire has any sort of 24 hour cancellation policy when it comes to airfares. I would *think* they might allow it, as Expedia does, but it's best to assume you cannot cancel your flight within 24 hours of booking without paying a hefty fee.

booking currency:

Watch out! I've noticed that on Hotwire, even when it shows $CAD selected on the main page of the website, when you get to the flight search result page, the prices are always in $USD.

If you see something on Hotwire you like, you can always just search for the same thing on Expedia.ca and it will display the same flight, but in $CAD.

So, changes are $100 USD more than what they would cost if booked with the airline directly.

This is a fairly steep service fee relative to the industry average of $50, so you may want to think twice if there's a good chance you'll want to change your flight plans later.

24 hour cancellation policy:

BudgetAir lets you cancel your flight for free within 24 hours of booking BUT if the airline tickets your reservation within that time-frame, they will charge a $50 service fee.

booking currency:

There's a good chance that BudgetAir or Vayama are showing you prices in $USD, but it really depends on how you arrived at the site.

On BudgetAir, on the initial search results page it should show a '$C' beside the price (eg: $C 1043.56) - which is the price in $CAD. The same goes for the booking page. If it does not, you may want to try starting from www.budgetair.ca - which will redirect you to BudgetAir.com (but set the currency correctly).

On Vayama, the initial search results page will show the price in both $USD (big font) and $CAD (little font). After selecting your flights, the price is shown in $USD on the right hand side of the page, but if you scroll down to the bottom, it *may* show you the price in $CAD (depending on how you arrived at Vayama). If it does not, you may want to try starting your search again, at www.vayama.ca - which will redirect you to Vayama.com (but set the currency correctly)

#20 - Airfare.com

Airfare.com is an American owned site. Even though Kayak is a meta-search travel site that *usually* just sends you to an external third party site for booking, Kayak will sometimes seemingly allow you to book a flight directly through Kayak. You're not *really* booking with Kayak though, your booking is being handled by Airfare.com

The biggest problem I've seen with Airfare.com over the years is how slow they can be at issuing tickets. This has led to a problem that I see with many third party booking sites, the ability to deliver on the price that a person thinks they've booked.

On the other hand, they have come through on a few more recent deals. The tickets were always issued just fine, it just seemed like Airfare.com was slow at updating customers with their booking details.

is one of the third party sites that does not relay the typical 'airline change fee' that most third party sites (and airlines themselves) will charge you, but makes up for it by charging a very high service fee. They're basically including the maximum typical airline change fee in their service fee.

So, how much more you would *really* end up paying for any changes with Airfare.com (vs booking directly with the airline) is dependent on how much the airline involved would have charged you for their change fee.

The typical airline change fee is around $200 USD. If you're using an airline that would have charged you less than this amount when booking directly through them, then Airfare.com is effectively adding a hidden service fee.

24 hour cancellation policy:

Airfare.com explicitly states in their terms & conditions that they do not offer free 24-hour cancellation of any sort.

booking currency:

If you're booking with Airfare.com 'through' Kayak Canada, (identified by ca.kayak.com at the beginning of the link), the prices shown should be identified as being $CAD on the Kayak page you're looking at.

If you arrived at Airfare.com on your own, it's a different story. It seems that IF the departure city you use in your search is a Canadian one, the resulting prices will be in $CAD.

But if the departure city you use in your search is an American city, the resulting prices will be in $USD.

#22 - Travelgenio or Travel2be

Travelgenio and Travel2be are really the same site, both owned by a large Spanish travel company. If you've run across either of these sites, you were probably sent there from the meta-search site Skyscanner.

Ranked #22, this is where we start to get into the third party sites I'd probably avoid, if possible, as it's likely you can find the same price on a better third party site.

So, changes are $40 CAD more than what it would cost if booked with the airline directly. Note that EBookers fees are actually in pounds, since they are focused on the European market, so the fee will vary with the exchange rate.

24 hour cancellation policy:

It does not appear that Ebookers has a 24 hour cancellation policy. It's best to assume you cannot cancel your flight within 24 hours of booking without paying a hefty fee.

booking currency:

Ebookers only displays prices in British pounds. There isn't a way to book in $CAD.

#24 - eDreams

eDreams is a pretty big player over in Europe (where they are based), but it's become slightly more common to see Canadians mention them, now that they sometimes show up in meta-search site giant Kayak's results.

Their support doesn't have a great reputation, and I think a lot of people end up accidentally booking in Euros with eDreams - leading to confusion about the price charged to their credit card.

#25 - Travel Cuts

Travel Cuts is a Canadian travel agency, with about 50 actual bricks and mortar locations across Canada (in addition to their online website).

They tend to focus on helping students book travel, with alleged discounts for full-time students. It's unlikely there would be any real significant discounts on airfares. Perhaps on products with higher profit margins, such as tour packages.

In terms of the Travel Cuts online site, it's a pretty standard search experience, and maybe a little lacking in features.

#26 - AirfareExperts

AirfareExperts is another one of those smaller, Canadian-owned, travel booking agencies that you sometimes run across when using a meta-search site like Skyscanner or Momondo.

In general, these types of small-time agencies have poor/slow booking technology, and they may get back to you 2 days after you think you've booked something, and tell you they were unable to actually book the ticket at the price you thought you had booked it at.

#27 - Tripsta

To be honest, I don't know a whole lot about Tripsta, and I rarely see anyone mention them. Their support number is a 1-900 number, and it appears to cost $0.99/min. If you've ever had to deal with anything travel related by phone, you know this could end up costing a small fortune!

#28 - GalaTravels

GalaTravels is yet another one of those smaller, Canadian-owned, travel booking agencies that you sometimes run across when using a meta-search site like Skyscanner or Momondo.

In general, these types of small-time agencies have poor/slow booking technology, and they may get back to you 2 days after you think you've booked something, and tell you they were unable to actually book the ticket at the price you thought you had booked it at.

I do think GalaTravels may at least try to offer decent customer service though, based on what I've read about them. They are essentially a family owned agency that has been around for over 35 years.

cost of changing flights:

GalaTravels does not list the price of their service fees on their website.

is one of the third party sites that does not relay the typical 'airline change fee' that most third party sites (and airlines themselves) will charge you, but makes up for it by charging a very high service fee. They're basically including the maximum typical airline change fee in their service fee.

So, how much more you would *really* end up paying for any changes with FareGeek (vs booking directly with the airline) depends on how much the airline involved would have charged you for a change fee.

The typical airline change fee is around $200. If you're using an airline that would have charged you less than this amount when booking directly through them, then FareGeek is effectively adding a hidden service fee.

24 hour cancellation policy:

It does not appear that Fare Geek has any sort of 24 hour cancellation policy. It's best to assume you cannot cancel your flight within 24 hours of booking without paying a hefty fee.

booking currency:

On FareGeek, IF the departure city you use in your search is a Canadian one, the results will be in $CAD. But if the departure city is an American city, the results will be in $USD.

I'm fairly certain that FareDepot is run by the same company behind FareGeek. The sites do not have an overly similar appearance, but their terms & condition pages are identical. So it's either that, or one is plagiarizing the other.

Similar to other small-time agencies, I'd avoid them if possible, as the booking technology is likely slow, clunky, and fraught with issues, and it's likely you can do better.

So, any changes would be 20 Euros more than if you had booked with the airline directly.

24 hour cancellation policy:

It does not appear that Bravo Fly has any sort of 24 hour cancellation policy. It's best to assume you cannot cancel your flight within 24 hours of booking without paying a hefty fee.

booking currency:

BravoFly doesn't make it very easy to see what currency they're billing you in.

While testing the site, there were times where I had allegedly set the currency to $CAD (top-right of your screen, beside the headphones), but it showed me the same price as when setting the currency to $USD.

This makes me pretty nervous about their ability to even bill in the correct currency, and another reason to avoid them.

So, any changes would be 30 Euro more than if you had booked with the airline directly.

24 hour cancellation policy:

It does not appear that AirTickets has any sort of 24 hour cancellation policy. It's best to assume you cannot cancel your flight within 24 hours of booking without paying a hefty fee.

booking currency:

On AirTickets, the displayed prices are in Euros by default. There doesn't appear to be a way to manually set the currency, but if you start your search at ca.airtickets.com the prices will display in $CAD.

#35 - ExploreTrip

ExploreTrip.com is an American owned site. I don't think I've ever seen *anyone* mention them before, and I really can't dig up much info on their background. I would avoid them.

2017 update: There have been a few recent deals (notably to Japan) where ExploreTrip was the only one showing a really low price. Many, many Canadians booked these without problem and the tickets were issued from the airline. They still wouldn't be my first choice, but sometimes there isn't another one.

cost of changing flights:

I can't seem to find their fees listed anywhere.

24 hour cancellation policy:

It does not appear that ExploreTrip has any sort of 24 hour cancellation policy. It's best to assume you cannot cancel your flight within 24 hours of booking without paying a hefty fee.

booking currency:

On ExploreTrip, IF the departure city you use in your search is a Canadian one, the resulting prices will be in $CAD. But if the departure city is an American city, the resulting prices will be in $USD.

#36 - BookAirfare

BookAirfare is a third party site you might run across if you use the meta-search site Momondo. BookAirfare is based in the U.S.

Similar to other small-time agencies, I'd avoid them if possible, as the booking technology is likely slow, clunky, and fraught with issues, and it's likely you can do better.

cost of changing flights:

Their fees are not mentioned anywhere on the site.

24 hour cancellation policy:

In their terms & conditions, BookAirfare claims that if you purchase their $15 'Best Price Guarantee' at the time of booking, you can cancel your fare 'within the same day of the reseravtion' and receive everything back except for the $15.

*However*, the terms also specify that the flight price needs to have dropped (within the same day of booking) to receive the refund, which makes it kind of useless.

booking currency:

On BookAirfare, IF the departure city you use in your search is a Canadian city, the results will be in $CAD. But if the departure city is an American city, the results will be in $USD.

#37 - Travelpack

Travelpack is one of those smaller, Canadian-owned, travel booking agencies that you sometimes run across when using a meta-search site like Skyscanner or Momondo.

In general, these types of small-time agencies have poor/slow booking technology, and they may get back to you 2 days after you think you've booked something, and tell you they were unable to actually book the ticket at the price you thought you had booked it at.

cost of changing flights:

Travelpack does not list the price of their service fees on their website.

#40 - StudentUniverse

They obviously target the student demographic, with promises of discounts for students and youths. I am unaware of any flight deals through Student Universe that are actually cheaper than anywhere else. Perhaps on higher profit margin products, such as tours, there might be a genuine discount for students.

So, changes are $100 USD more than what it would cost if booked with the airline directly. This is a very high service fee. You would want to be 100% certain that you will never want to modify or cancel your booking when booking with Student Universe.

24 hour cancellation policy:

It does not appear that Student Universe has a 24 hour cancellation policy. It's best to assume you cannot cancel your flight within 24 hours of booking without paying a hefty fee.

booking currency:

Student Universe prices are displayed in $USD by default. To change it to $CAD, try clicking on the dollar sign ($) in the top right corner.

#41 - FlyLink

FlyLink is another one of those smaller, Canadian-owned (based out of Toronto), travel booking agencies that you sometimes run across when using a meta-search site like Skyscanner or Momondo.

In general, these types of small-time agencies have poor/slow booking technology, and they may get back to you 2 days after you think you've booked something, and tell you they were unable to actually book the ticket at the price you thought you had booked it at.

cost of changing flights:

FlyLink does not list the price of their service fees on their website.

#42 - SmartFares

SmartFares is a pretty generic booking site, allegedly based out of the U.S.. You occasionally see them as one of the booking sites associated with meta-search engines like Skyscanner or Momondo.

I don't see Canadians mention SmartFares very often, so I can't really comment on their customer service. They do have a really high rating over at TrustPilot but from scanning through the reviews, I get the feeling a click farm in India was used to generate thousands of these fake, poorly spelled, short, and oddly positive reviews.

So, changes are $100 to $200 USD more than what it would cost if booked with the airline directly. This is a very high service fee. You would want to be 100% certain that you will never want to modify or cancel your booking when booking with SmartFares!

24 hour cancellation policy:

It does not appear that SmartFares has any sort of 24 hour cancellation policy. It's best to assume you cannot cancel your flight within 24 hours of booking without paying a hefty fee.

booking currency:

SmartFares prices are always in $USD. It's the only currency the website displays.

The third party site is where the booking is actually made, and the quality of the third party site you end up at is all that *really* matters, not the meta-search site that sent you there. The third party site is 100% responsible for your booking.

However, there are certain strengths and weakness to each of the meta-search sites when it comes to actually searching for a great airfare deal.

Once you've found a great deal on a meta-search site, you may want to note the third party booking site they're sending you to, and check out their review in the Third Party Booking Site Power Rankings to see if they're any good.

#1 - Google Flights

The greatest strength of Google Flights is their ability to show you every possible date combination at near instantaneous speed.

No other site can come close to matching this, as other websites need to physically search outside sources for airfares a few dates at a time, while Google Flights literally owns all of the live airfare data (it only cost them $750 million!), and can do things with it at speeds that only Google can.

If you're flexible on dates and destinations, no site makes it easier to browse available airfares quickly and easily.

has a pretty limited number of third party booking site partners they can send you to. Usually it's to Flight Network or Expedia, and sometimes directly to the airline.

So when it comes time to actually booking the flight, it can sometimes be a challenge. Sometimes you'll click your way through to the booking site and find the price doesn't really exist.

It's also quite common for Google Flights to show you what seems to be a great price, but be unable to give you an option for actually booking it. It will usually tell you to try calling an agent, or the airline. This can be futile if the price doesn't actually exist. They won't be able to book it either.

Sometimes you might find the price exists on another meta-search or booking site. Other times, it's a price that can't really be booked anywhere, no matter where you look.

There are other meta-search sites out there that will seemingly partner with just about any third party booking site out there, whether it's of high or low quality.

Occasionally you will find a great airfare on Google Flights, only to discover it can't really be booked on there, and subsequently run the same search on Kayak, to find a booking site that can actually book it.

weaknesses:

About the only weakness I can think of for Kayak is that you can't easily browse all possible date combinations, like you can with Google Flights.

makes it easy to see your 'Cheapest', 'Quickest', and 'Best' flight options. The 'Best' option is comparing the price of the flight vs how long it takes you to get there, and showing you the flight that is the best balance between the two.

There's a nice bar graph interface that allows you to quickly see if there are cheaper flights on alternate dates.

The third party booking sites that Momondo partners with have a wide range of quality, from the very best, to some that are more dubious.

So be mindful of the third party site Momondo sends you to when making the booking, and check out their ranking in the Third Party Booking Site Power Rankings to see what the quality of the booking site is like and things to watch out for.

#4 - Skyscanner

has some interesting features, such as the ability to search fares from a city to an entire country (eg. Your City to Italy) and it will show you the cheapest prices to each airport in Italy.

Or you can even search Country to Country (eg: France to Italy) and it will show you the cheapest prices between each country, a great way to figure out the cheapest cities to use when flying between the 2 countries.

Their flexible date calendar is pretty powerful for browsing all possible date combinations, although it relies on recent Skyscanner searches, as opposed to Google Flights, who is using real, live prices.

used to be known for being the best search tool to search all of the smaller, budget airlines that fly within Europe, although I'd say the other large meta-search sites have now caught up in this department.

weaknesses:

While Skyscanner does show you results from what I would say are the higher quality third-party booking sites, they do also seem to partner with a lot of the lower quality booking sites as well.

#5 - Hipmunk

When Hipmunk first came on to the scene, they were known for the innovative way they displayed airfares, with a unique graphical layout of your flight options and stopover times. Personally, I was never really drawn to this layout, but visual learners might like it.

They were also known for another unique feature (at the time), the ability to sort results by 'agony' which is comparing the price vs the duration of the flight, and giving you the flight option with the best balance between the two. Other meta-search sites now have a similar feature, such as Momondo's 'Best' flight option.

seems to partner with high quality booking sites for the most part, and displays results directly from the airlines a bit more often than other meta-search sites.

weaknesses:

The flexible date search shows you a matrix grid of 7 days by 7 days, which is nice in theory, but it's limited in the sense that it only shows prices of recent searches made by Hipmunk users. For missing date combinations (and there can be plenty), you need to individually click on each one and run a search, defeating the purpose.

Most of the third party booking sites that Cheapflights partners with are of pretty good quality, but like a lot of meta-search sites, they do also partner with some of the lower quality booking sites as well.

#7 - Fly.com

It has all of the standard features found on a meta-search site, with the ability to filter by flight times, flight durations, number of stops, layover airports, and airlines. Fly.com also has the ability to filter by price, something not found on every site.

things to watch out for:

The prices on Fly.com *may* appear in $USD until you set the currency in the top right corner. If you use the links from this page, the currency will be set to $CAD for you.

Most of the third party booking sites that Fly.com partners with are of pretty good quality, but like a lot of meta-search sites, they do also partner with some of the lower quality booking sites as well.

So be mindful of the third party site Fly.com sends you to when making the booking, and check out their ranking in the Third Party Booking Site Power Rankings to see what the quality of the booking site is like and things to watch out for.

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Comments from Everyone Else

38 Responses to "Third Party Airfare Booking Sites: The Power Rankings - who to trust, who to avoid"

Rene on
July 18th, 2015

i've booked with exploretip. I can't say enough how garbage they are. requiring a phone call to confirm and no prompting if they didn't receive the call. Stay away

Lori F. on
July 26th, 2015

Chris, I just want to thank you for publishing this article on Third Party Booking Service sites. I found the information you provided incredibly helpful. I often wondered how safe some of those sites were, but just didn't have the time or know-how to do the necessary research. Thank you so much, for both this article as well as your regular travel deal alerts.

Chris_Myden on
July 27th, 2015

No problem, thanks Lori, glad it helped!

Steve on
July 27th, 2015

One thing I didn't see mentioned was which site more often offers better prices. Is there a difference on which deals go to which site? Or is it all the same pretty much offering the same flights at the same price? Apologies if I missed this

Chris_Myden on
July 28th, 2015

There really isn't one site in particular that jumps out as having consistently better prices than the rest all of the time. One of the biggest misconceptions I think people have is that the sites are in control of the prices. The sites are just the messenger. It would be financial suicide for any site to purposefully set their prices lower than the competition on airfares.

Many times when a great deal is available on one particular third party site, it will be available on some of the others as well. Ultimately they all download their prices from somewhat similar sources.

If you've followed the YYZ Deals blog posts for a while, there are certain third party sites that do get mentioned more often than others. Sometimes it's because they are the only ones showing a great price. Other times it's because they are the first to show it.

Expedia, Priceline, FlightNetWork and FlightHub seem to come up the most often in the deal postsl.

Anna on
February 29th, 2016

Thanks for this. Very informative indeed and confirms some of the things I'm careful of such as which currency and extra fees. I've used Ticketpilot.ca in the past. It's usually my first go to. Do you have an opinion on this site?

Chris_Myden on
March 3rd, 2016

Thanks Anna! I think TicketPilot is just run by one of the many smaller travel agencies in Ontario. Being a smaller site, I haven't seen a ton of feedback on them from Canadians, but I think they're probably OK to use, TICO certified, etc.

Daly on
April 21st, 2016

I think the change fee now (in 2016) for FlightNetwork is substantially more than $100 plus airline change fee.

John Dough on
January 13th, 2017

Expedia is terrible. Their "customer service" reps are clueless, even if they could speak English, which many can't. They refuse to take responsibility for the tickets they sell if something goes wrong.

In fact, all 3rd party booking sites are terrible. It is easy to get caught between them and the airline, with each saying that the other is responsible for handling the problem. There serve no real purpose, except the to take cut and hike fares. They are also the reason that airlines have turned everything into add on fees - so they can look artificially lower on these sites. They have created a race to the bottom in travel booking.

Grandma's Grandson on
January 13th, 2017

Thanks for this list, I every year I look forward to annual updates.Great work, I never heard of maybe 2/3rds of companies on the list.

As for airline vs. 3rd party I agree that ALL airlines have better customer service, but with exemption of advance booking you most of the time you can find cheaper price on 3rd party website than airline itself offers you (really don't know why, but even your post on this web are often proof of that)

Another thing puzzles me too- you look at things like cancellation policy, 24hr cancellation or customer service. But we all know that there's only one priority, especially for people who come to this site- find the cheapest airfare.

I know that there's no clear methodology to compare sites in this aspect. But there are definitely some trend e.g. while Expedia usually offers good deals on hotels, Cheapoair or Flighthub can beat their prices in 90% of cases or you can always find a flight cheaper than FlightCentre offers.

Shouldn't this be main criteria for this top chart?

Madhu on
January 16th, 2017

Thanks Chris, As usual your posts are very informative and helpful to travel newbies like me. I have few requests and really appreciate if you can help.

Can you please advise or suggest which is the best option to book flights from Asia (India) to Toronto (Canada) as its always tough for me to book flights from India to Toronto using third parties like expedia and local agencies in India due to lack of customer support incase of delays or cancellation of flights in connection.My parents had hard time reaching to Toronto from VTZ last few times due to air India and air Canada connections and no one wants to take the responsibilities and expedia could not help in this regard as well.

Secondly, I would request you to post some information on cruise deals booking for Canadians and post some deals with connecting flights...

Lastly, I did posted a request on your FB page, but it never got published. Is there any restriction or moderation before posting on your FB wall..i could comment on other posts..but cannot post my self.

Once again..i am big fan of you and you really saved thousands of $$ for the past few years.

Chris_Myden on
January 19th, 2017

Grandson: Thanks for the comments. I definitely see your point about prices, and the ability for a booking site to deliver on the best available price is definitely something I factor in quite heavily. I'd say over 95% of great deals posted on here come from sites that are ranked in the Top 10. On rare occasion one of the lower ranked sites is the only one showing a great price, such as Explore Trip.

Jenny on
January 24th, 2017

I had no idea you could cancel a "non refundable" flight ticket. How easy is it to do so?

ps. thank you for the amazing info, I consider myself a seasoned traveler and a good discount hunter, and I still learned a lot of new things

Chris Myden on
January 24th, 2017

Thanks Jenny! Only certain booking sites allow you to actually cancel an airfare without any fee (or a low fee). It also has to be within a certain time period (usually less than 24 hours). Priceline has the best policy for this. Most booking sites do not have this policy and will usually charge a person a lot for cancelling an airfare, no matter how soon after it was booked.

For the sites that do allow it, you usually just need to call within the allowed time period.

Most U.S. based airlines also have a 24 hour grace period where you can cancel your flight without penalty if you book directly through them.

Jenny on
February 13th, 2017

I wanted to add a comment about priceline. Recently another site was advertising a good deal from YYZ to FLL for specific dates. When I went to PL to book those, I saw the price I wanted, I clicked through to get to the payment window and AFTER I entered the credit card info, PL informed me that the price of the flight is no longer available and it is now twice as expensive.

Fine, I go out to the search screen and repeat the steps - and to my surprise still see the lower price. Go through the steps again, and AFTER entering the cc info - the flight is no longer available.

I understand that prices change, but in my mind, once I am asked for payment info, the tickets should be reserved for me (for 5 or 10 minutes I would think). Apparently they are not with PL.

I did the same thing through their app - still see the lower price, and can't book it.

I called PL and on their end, they only see the higher price. (I also removed my temporary internet files, used a different browser etc)-.

I love PL for "name your own price hotels", but this was an awful experience trying to book a "deal" airfare.

Albert on
March 7th, 2017

I just booked with buymytrip.com, and I had good experience with them. I got the etickets\ itinerary very fast. I also asked a favour to make the receipt separately for my name, and separately for rest of my family and they did. So everything good so far. I know the problem comes when you have to change something, but it's almost the same with all agencies. I read their policies, and I took the risk. Was a good deal.

Wayne on
March 14th, 2017

Very informative Chris. I didn't look into this until after I booked with a 3rd party site. I booked with Flight Hub airfare in this case to Orlando, which seemed to offer the cheapest flight, even cheaper than the airline or other 3rd party sites. After booking (too hastily), I searched ?

My question is, Can I prevent Flight Hub (or any other 3rd party sites if booked through) from cancelling my flight without proper cause? How? Or any recourse if they did that? Thanks!

Jack on
April 10th, 2017

I just booked a YVR-FCO with Nanik Flights. Whole process was seamless. All finalized in 15 minutes. Will definitely recommend them

raeleen on
June 17th, 2017

has anyone booked with clickmytrip.com? i found a great deal via momondo.com which then led me to their site. hoping they are legit!

Chris Myden on
June 21st, 2017

raeleen: That's one that's started popping up recently on Momondo. I think they might be pretty new. I don't know anything about them, other than that they are based in India, and I haven't seen anyone really talk about their experience with them yet I have seen them offering slightly better prices than other booking sites on a lot of searches.

My gut says that they wouldn't be the first choice for booking with, but like all booking sites, as long your ticket is issued by the airline, that is the main thing *unless* you need some sort of help down the line (such as making changes to your flight). You should also always verify that the airline has issued your ticket.

If you ended up booking through them and are able to share your experience, please do.

yeeloong on
June 21st, 2017

Have any booked through this site called www.gate1.ca? Was directed from momondo and they boast some amazing prices (at least 200 cheaper than other sites) but their site looks kind of sketch!

Chris Myden on
June 21st, 2017

Here's some info that I posted about gate1.ca on a recent deal they were showing from Vancouver to Singapore. At the time, they were the only ones showing some pretty incredible prices on ANA from Vancouver to Singapore (other sites would eventually start to show these prices).

Later on, a few days after the deal was posted, I heard from from quite a few people in Vancouver that booked the deal on gate1.ca - and who verified their tickets directly on the ANA website using their ticket number. No problems reported.

-- info from the Vancouver - Singapore post on YVRdeals ---

Gate1.ca only started showing up on Momondo about 6 months ago as a partner booking site, but they are actually owned by tix.nl (you can see this on their contact page).

Some of the larger booking sites around the world create 'spin-off' booking sites that are dedicated to specific markets or countries.

Tix.nl is an agency based in the Netherlands and has been around for at least 6 years, as far as I can tell from their reviews on TrustPilot.com

The tix.nl reviews on TrustPilot seem better than most booking sites. It appears that tix.nl actually responds to reviews, which is definitely more than can be said for most sites.

Gate1.ca has no relation to Gate1Travel.com - a somewhat well known tour company in the U.S.

Sheila on
August 5th, 2017

I booked a trip through ClickmyTrip, 20 minutes later I got an email saying my payment didn't go through, I called Clickmytrip and they said I had an issue with my credit card, I called my credit card provider, they said Clickmytrip never even attempted to process the payment as they did not see an attempt on their end. I then called Clickmytrip back, and they said oh well your trip is already canceled, nothing I can do. Total scammers, the trip was a pretty good deal so I think they just didn't want to honour the deal, they didn't even put the payment through and acted like it was my credit card issue. I verified everything with my credit card provider. Scammers, don't go through them.

Laura on
August 18th, 2017

FYI Priceline used to offer the option of CAD in the top right, but they don't anymore so they are basically useless to Canadians... :/, pretty pathetic Priceline, we're a huge country with a LOTTTT of international travellers

Chris_Myden on
August 18th, 2017

Hi Laura, just to let you know you can still book things on Priceline as a Canadian, using a Canadian credit card. You are just charged the amount in Canadian dollars, with an extra 2.5% charge from your credit card company for the foreign exchange.

It can sometimes still be cheaper to book on Priceline, even after converting to Canadian dollars and the extra 2.5% foreign exchange charge.

Justin on
September 7th, 2017

I booked my flight from flightfaredeals.com and found the price is 150USD cheaper than unitedairline.com. Is it possible?

Chris Myden on
September 15th, 2017

Justin: It definitely does happen, yep. (A third party booking site being cheaper than the airline's website).

Julie on
December 3rd, 2017

Hi Chris Thanks for all the info on the different websites to avoid. Very helpful and was not aware of such hazard.

Just a quick question I am planning to travel in April or May and wonder the best timeline to look at tickets. I know sometimes it's best not to book to far out

Any advice on that.?

Thx

Chris Myden on
December 6th, 2017

Hi Julie,

Unfortunately there isn't really a rule of when to book that applies to all origins and destinations.

The airlines use sophisticated software to set the prices of each route individually.

They try to forecast what price point people will be willing to pay for that route, based on historical and current demand.

But if I had to give one overall general rule of thumb, I would say the airlines tend to offer their best prices about 8-12 weeks before departure.

Dayna F. on
December 19th, 2017

Hi Chris:

Thanks for the article. I had decided to go with Fareboom after reading your article for a trip in Feb. from DFW to Florence, Italy. I tried to call them first to ask a few questions and it kept saying the call didn't go through. So, now I'm even more nervous than before to book anything with them. There price was pretty amazing, though. $750 roundtrip compared to $1500 on the airline. Is that too good to be true?

Also, on Momondo, a site called TravelMerry keeps popping up as the cheapest flight. Heard anything on them. I'm booking 5 people and I'm terrified of booking with a dud website!

Thank you!

Chris_Myden on
December 29th, 2017

Hi Dayna,

I've seen so many 'too good to be true' airfare prices over the years that turned out to be bookable, that I would never say an airfare price is too good to be true. It's really just a matter of whether the booking site involved can actually get the ticket issued from the airline at the price they're showing.

TravelMerry is one that comes up a lot on Momondo when the origin city is in the U.S. (I see them all the time on YVR Deals with deals out of Seattle). So far I haven't heard anyone complain about them - but their website does have the look and feel of the lower quality booking sites. I need to add them to the rankings.

Watch out for the fact that TravelMerry is in $USD.

Freya on
January 25th, 2018

All this overload of info makes my brain spin and will to care go out the window. Your post is less than a year old and there are new sights like airtkt.com and justfly.com that are not on your list. It feels so daunting to keep up with it all. AND remember who owns whom and all that. Want to see my sister, can't spend thousands, nervous to take the chance it could be fine or thousands. I'm a whiner!! WAAAHHH. Sorry. ;) also, why don't they take Discover? I thought it was a well used card. I feel like it's as good as a Diner's Club Card!! lol. Anyway. thank you for this article and the explanations.

Allison on
January 25th, 2018

Anyone ever booked with ykca.cheapfaresnow.com? Seeing a much better price with them, but a little hesitant to book with them as I've never heard of them and can't find much info online.

Tuzo on
April 3rd, 2018

Re: Nanak Flights, I had a good experience with them. My flight was set up quickly in the carriers system but it took until the next business day to receive my etickets via email -- that might be a manual process? I had to change my international flight to a different day and was able to get in touch with a person (sometimes that's difficult!) and they were quite responsive (phone, email, text) but I did have to pay change fees. The fees were all bundled together (their fee, airline fee, flight price difference) but I would say they are probably "high" compared to others above.

Megz on
June 21st, 2018

Thank u for the review, looking for the best review for a certain third party site and you did it all, glad all of them are legit! Thanks for this article

Chris_Myden on
June 21st, 2018

No problem Megz, glad it helped!

Deb on
July 27th, 2018

I also found Nanak Flights fees to be overly high - $145+ increase in fare for changes and $450 for cancellation. Ask up front! I was told it was on the invoice they sent me but that particular invoice was never sent... Having said that, as soon as I wrote to BBB explaining that the fee had never been mentioned, $305 (the agency fee) was refunded immediately. I would consider Nanak again, but only if the flight was a sure thing from my end, covered by travel insurance which this one would not have been.

Jason on
October 20th, 2018

Can you shed any light on budgetair.com? For yul-gru and yul-gig they are consistently charging $60 to $70 less than other travel sites, that's factoring in the easy $15 off coupon with Flight Network. And I've tried with a couple of different carriers. Looking at their price breakdown, the amount for Air Transportation is the same as other sites including the airline's own site, and the taxes fees and charges are exactly the same too. The difference is they have a negative "reservation fee" which varies, usually at least $80 for me. I don't see how one site can consistently charge at least $60 less than everyone else. Is there a catch?

The only thing I can figure is that airfares to Brazil are very competitive right now and the airlines are giving this particular travel agency a sizable discount - or else there is some hidden fee coming my way after purchase. I don't care about cancellation or changes, and I opted out of all their extra fees.